Qu Lei Lei was born in Northern China in 1951 to a family of intellectual communists. His parents were: ‘regarded as heroic figures who rose to high positions in the party and brought up their children believing in the power of communism and the conviction and strength of Chairman Mao’ (from Asian Art News January/February 1998). Qu was taught traditional Chinese Painting and Calligraphy in Beijing from the Private Master Tan Wan-Cun (1958-64). From 1977-78 he studied anatomy at the Beijing Medical University in order to further his knowledge of the human. In 1979 Qu was one of the founder members of the Stars (Xing Xing) group - which organised the first avant-garde exhibition in China - at the Shufang Studio in Beijing.

Qu was 15 when the Cultural Revolution started. As an artist he found it difficult to express the intense emotions he felt at the terrible events that ensured and the eventual break up of his family. Increasingly frustrated by the limitations of traditional Chinese techniques he turned to the more expressive possibilities of modern Western painting. The work in this exhibition illustrates this combination.

Qu has lived and worked in England for over ten years now and has studied Painting and Drawing at The Central School of Art and Design. He ahs lectured on the practice of Chinese Contemporary Painting at the British Museum, SOAS, Sotheby’s and Christies’s and has taught Chinese Brush Painting at the Victoria and Albert Museum. He is also a Visiting Tutor at the Rusking School of Art Oxford.